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Kansas City - The City of Fountains Kansas City Front Page is a weekly news publication spotlighting attractions, jobs, events, business and hotels in downtown Kansas City. |
Kansas City ranks second in the world in the number of fountains, next only to Rome, Italy. The Humane Society built Kansas City's first fountains in the late 1800s to provide clean drinking water for horses and dogs. Among the most photographed and perhaps best known is the J C Nichols Memorial Fountain, located at the east entrance to the Country Club Plaza. The 1910 sculpture by Henry Gerber of Paris, France, features four equestrian figure, symbols of four rivers: Rhine, Seine, Mississippi and Volga. The J C Nichols Memorial Fountain was dedicated in 1960 in the memory of J.C. Nichols, who developed the Country Club Plaza. The Moorish architecture of the 14-square-block Country Club Plaza is modeled after Seville, Spain. Nichols also created outdoor sculpture galleries in Kansas City neighborhoods with art he brought back from his European travels.
The 30-foot high sculpture, by Wheeler Williams of New York, weights 2,500 lbs. and rests on a marble base. The unusual bronze wire for her net was created with a special machine. Water cascades down into 3 pools near the intersection of 9th and Main Streets in downtown Kansas City. The Neptune Fountain, 47th & Wornall, is an 8,000 pound cast lead fountain featuring the god of the sea riding three mythological sea horses. Nichols bought the sculpture that was destined to be sold for scrap. The fountain was made in 1911 at the Bromsgrove Guild Studio in Worchestershire, England. The Henry Wollman Bloch Fountain was built during the summer of 2001 in a median between the Union Station building and the Liberty Memorial Park at Main & Pershing. More than 1,610 square feet of 2-inch-thick Winter Sky Granite was cut and shipped from Canada for the water display area. More than 7,991 square feet of 2-inch-thick Rustenburg Dark Granite was used for the water skin area. More than 736 square feet of 1 1/4 inch thick granite was used on the face of the fountain, designed by Wet Design. At night, white light illuminates the choreographed jets propeling water in a variety of heights. The 49 water jets and 48 water shooters of the Crown Center Square Fountain shoot up to 60 feet in the air, before coming back to a 37,500-gallon underground reservoir. Water is recycled into the fountain at a rate of 2,200 gallons per minute. Dancing water shows are synchronized to music recorded for Crown Center by members of the Kansas City Symphony.
  The Kansas City Front Page is owned and maintained by the Moore Design Group for the sole purpose of disseminating news and information about the Metropolitan Kansas City area. Text or graphics may not be copied, rewritten or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission. For more information, contact editor@slfp.com All rights reserved world wide © 2007 - 2012 Moore Design Group. |
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